The multi-pronged retention plan focuses on changes both inside and outside the classroom to help students build a stronger sense of community and academic purpose: 

Academic overhauls and new programs are as follows:

• New Academic Offerings: The university is introducing four to eight new academic programs—including a standalone Mecatronics engineering degree—to ensure coursework aligns closely with emerging career fields and student interests. 

• School of Business: Establish a brand-new School of Business, Economics, and Professional Studies to solidify workforce preparation. 

• Liberal Arts 2.0: A modernized core curriculum initiative that integrates human-centered liberal arts critical thinking with digital literacy and an artificial intelligence-driven world.

Plans for expanded campus life and community are as follows:

• Extended "Weeks of Welcome:" Orientation activities have been expanded from a standard two weeks to six weeks, featuring more than 30 campuswide events designed to combat early-semester isolation and improve peer integration. 

• Local partnerships: The strategy aims to build two to three new annual partnerships with local Asheville businesses and organizations to provide students with deeper roots in the surrounding community through employer exposure and hands-on learning. 

 Individualized milestone support is as follows:

• Tailored interventions: Faculty and success teams are pivoting toward tracking individualized student milestones. This allows counselors to catch non-academic challenges early and provide bespoke support rather than generic campus resources.

These changes operate under the university's broader Asheville 2030 Strategic plan, which targets a steady one percentage point increase in fall-to-fall student persistence annually.